Scary Prospect: making the switch to a Powerbook

[rockymtnhigh]

I am buying a new laptop; after three years of lugging around 8 lbs of my Toshiba Satellite (plus almost another 2 pounds for the power brick), I want to go to a smaller, lighter machine.

I am looking at 12 or 13 inch screens, in the 3 - 4 pound range. Not really concerned if it is the most powerful machine, just small, light, and capable to of doing word processing, email, internet, and watching movies on airplanes. I have full-powered desktops at home and the office, and a light 80GB external drive to port data back and forth.

I have been investigating Fujitsu Lifebooks and Dell; Toshiba does not have much that is small, and Sony's are too expensive (want to keep the price around $1500 if possible). But a few days ago a friend suggested that I look at the 12" Powerbook G4. He knows I have been a Windows/PC guy forever , and was mostly joking, but out of curiosity I started looking at the Powerbook, and to my surprise, I was pretty impressed with what I saw (even though it does not have the Intel Duo Core processor. My biggest concern with the possible switch is software compatibiligy, although I know I can always live with OpenOffice.org instead of Microsoft Office, but I have no idea how challenging the switch will be; or whether it will be worth it. At the same time, I know that the laptop switch to OS X would not mean abandoning windows on my other machines - and I am kind of adventuresome with computers, always loving to try new things.

I know that I can open up a HUGE can of worms with this topic, but I am really interested in what people have to say.

 

[kresston]

During this past week I have made an intermediary switch to a Mac. I managed to get a Power Mac G4 with Dual 450 processors for free. Actually I'm typing on it right now using Firefox. It's a bit different, but once you get used to the various ways to do things, its great. I'm contemplating downloading OpenOffice and then just dropping my PC out of the way until I need it. Its adventurous as you said, right now I'm just trying out various things until I can get a copy of OSX Tiger and do a reinstall with the software I want to keep. Unfortunately for me, this fall I will begin school again and I'm required to have a PC, have thought about doing the Intel Duo Core MacBook, but I don't want to take any risks.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I would love to get the macbook pro if they had a 12" model (I REALLY want my laptop to have a small footprint!). But the 15" model is 14x11; about the same as my existing Toshiba; too big!

My friend swears that the Powerbook G4 is very fast; but that ofcourse, is relative. I am curious to see how fast OS X Tiger is, running all of the various widgets and stuff.

For most stuff, OpenOffice is fine. And it is free. Of course, I have a full copy of Office 2003 Professional for the PC.

 

[kresston]

Well even on my G4 OS X is fast, but it all depends on what settings you use, and what you have running. On my XP machine there's a few seconds of lag opening My Computer, My Docs and such, but on the G4 is almost instant. I'm still learning but I've found alot of stuff online that helps explain some stuff. Now on XP I have a full copy of Office XP, didn't see the need to upgrade to 2003, when XP did all I needed it to.

 

[Optical Serenity]

I was a long time windows power user for many many years. That changed about a year and half ago.

A friend suggested i use my tax return to buy a mac, and woah! I was amazed!

I now have a 15" G4 Powerbook, and let me tell you, as I type on it right now, it is an absolute joy to use.

The processor is amazingly fast (it is similar to a Pentium M in speed...) for example: The Pentium M 2.0ghz runs faster than a Pentium 4 that is running at 3ghz, well, same thing here. A 1.6ghz G4 processor runs like a P4 at 3ghz. Its just more efficient, not to mention a MUCH better OS.

Also, keep in mind if you get an intel based mac..such as the Macbook or Macbook Pro, you can use "boot camp" that apple supplies, and dual boot between Windows and OS X. I don't know why on earth anyone would WANT to use Windows when they have OS X, but you can do it if you must.

I use MS Office for mac on my powerbook, and its great. In fact I prefer the Mac versions from Microsoft over the Windows versions by a long shot.

I highly suggest you stop by an Apple corporate store near you and talk to them. They will show you hands on what makes OS X far superior.